Federal Judge Grants Asset Freeze In Bizarre Fraud Case That Allegedly Mixed A Forex Ponzi Scheme With A Cash-Gifing And Tax Scheme; Arizona Resident Anthony Eugene Linton Promised Software System Let Customers ‘Profit Every Time’, CFTC Charges

The assets of an Arizona man who allegedly mixed a Forex Ponzi scheme with a cash-gifting scheme and claimed his software system let clients “profit every time” from trades have been frozen by a federal judge after the CFTC filed an emergency court action.

Anthony Eugene Linton of Tucson told investors that entrusting their money to him posed “no risk whatsoever” because of his miraculous trading abilities, personal wealth and software system, the CFTC charged.

Some customers were told their profits under Linton were not taxable because the enterprise was structured as a “tax free gift plan in which participation interests would be considered to be gifts” to Linton’s company, known as “The Private Trading Pool” (PTP).

Returns from PTP were positioned as “gifts” back to participants, “with the result that the transactions would not have to be disclosed to the Internal Revenue Service . . . and would be considered ‘tax free’ by the IRS,” CFTC charged.

Linton told one whopper after another, CFTC said.

“[W]hat little forex trading Linton did using customer funds resulted in consistent net losses, and, in the aggregate, he lost more than 90 percent of the funds traded,” CFTC charged.

When the scheme began to unravel, CFTC charged, Linton blamed purported “new restrictions” on Forex trading imposed by the U.S. Congress and the National Futures Association (NFA) for his inability to make payments, CFTC charged.

He also told some investors that a “Permanent Injunction” placed against him in his divorce case prevented him from making payments, CFTC charged.

The alleged scheme gathered at least $650,000 from at least 19 investors. Some of the funds were used in Ponzi scheme fashion, CFTC said.

Linton also used customer funds to make his “personal mortgage, car and credit card payments,” CFTC charged.

At the same time, he used customer funds “to buy and sell items on Ebay and converted large sums of customer funds into cash and stashed it in a safe in his home,” CFTC said.

U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ordered the asset freeze.